Students in Michigan City, Indiana were treated to a surprise day of remote learning this week when drivers arrived Tuesday to find that their buses had been stripped of their catalytic converters. According to local officials, more than a third of the school district’s buses were targeted in the overnight caper.
The district was forced to cancel in-person classes for all grade levels on Tuesday, pivoting instead to remote learning. Buses were made available for elementary and pre-school students on Wednesday, while middle and high school students got another day of remote learning.
The first driver to depart the district’s garage Tuesday morning was tipped off by her bus’s unmuffled exhaust. School district staff quickly inspected the rest of the fleet and found more than a dozen others were also missing.
While the district refers to its bus depot as a “garage,” that term is being used more to refer to the fact that its service facilities are present there. The fleet is far too large to fit in any of the buildings visible in aerial imagery of the property, which is wooded in on two sides and essentially invisible from the street.
Catalytic converters are integrated into automotive exhaust systems. These hot chambers are mounted away from the passenger compartment, usually low in the rear of the vehicle, where they can be easily accessed from below, especially on a high-riding vehicle like a school bus. The precious metals used in the catalysts themselves are quite valuable, making them prime targets for opportunistic thieves.
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Byron is a contributing writer and auto reviewer with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
